Long time no speak!

First of all huge apologies!  I can't believe it has been over a month since our last post!  We have been busy both with Capsaicinoia and just generally enjoying life.  It took an email from a reader to remind me that I had let things slide a little.

So where are we now?

Capsaicinoia did our first Chilli Festival at Eastnor Castle in Ledbury on the 6th and 7th of May and had a fantastic time.  It was busy, fun and overall a great success!  We made lots of sales and got great feedback on both the products and the overall concept.  We learnt a lot too and came back with a list of things to do to ensure that the next one is even better.  The next one is the Somerset Chilli Festival
at Bath Racecourse on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of June.  I can't be there as I finally am getting my new shoulder on the 25th of May but Matt is going to help Mike out.

What else have we been up to...

Mike had a birthday on the 25th April and to celebrate we went to see the Cirque du Soleil at the NIA with Ellana and then had a meal at Bank in Brindley Place.  He is now officially retired!

I saw the surgeon on the 23rd April and its all steam ahead for the 25th May......

We have met up with a few ex-colleagues through the month and the more we hear about how things are for them the happier we are to be where we are and doing what we are doing.  No regrets for sure....

We actually have a life now - we have had friends to visits and been to visit others to an extent that was never possible before.  Life is good!  When I flicked back through the diary to work out just what we have been doing since the last post most of it has been socialising!

Pre Eastnor - We had lunch in Leicester one day with one of Mike's ex colleagues, I had dinner out with my BF one night, we watched the Man U Man City match with some friends over a curry and went out for another curry another night with our neighbours. We had an American friend who lives in Belgium who we met in Vietnam to stay for a day or two and we took her on the grand tour of Birmingham including the Mailbox and our favourite Sushi place (Shogun Teppanyaki), Brindley Place and the Canals, the ICC and the new Library, a quick look at the Staffordshire Hoard, a beer in the Post Office Vaults, Selfridges and the Bull Ring.  Phew....

Post Eastnor - We had a fellow ex-sales manager and her family over for a West Indian Sunday lunch including my own recipe Rum Punch Ice Cream!  Finally, last weekend was spent with an ex member of my team and her wonderful family who spoiled us rotten with some wonderful Indian cooking.

Its surprising we have had any time left for work but throughout it all we have been slowly but surely expanding the business.  We are still trying to engage a good accountant and we have been gradually building up the product range and stock levels and are on track for 100 products by the end of the summer.  We have just started to develop our range of Hampers Hampers and Gift Boxes.

While things are going well with the business, the house sale is not really progressing at all. We have had a few viewings but so far no offers.  To be honest we are very much going with the flow now and pretty philosophical about it.  What will be will be.....or as the Scots say...what's for yae will nae go past yae......

Oh, and we have joined Costco on the strength of Capsaicinoia and bought a garage full of loo rolls and cleaning products a couple of weeks ago!

So that's us pretty much up to date!  We went up to Yorkshire for a family funeral yesterday and are catching up with ourselves before my op on Friday - I don't suppose I'll be typing for a wee while after that but hopefully I'll manage a one finger left handed effort soon....

It's official - we are Market Traders!

Since the last post we have had a real push to accelerate the growth of Capsaicinoia.  If we move to Scotland in the Autumn (fingers crossed) we need it to be ticking over nicely as we will be giving 99% of our attention to the Guest House business and it might be a little more difficult to promote and manage logistically due to the remote location.
We have decided that the best way to do this is to boost sales and promote the business at the same time by doing some Markets and Chilli Festivals throughout the summer.
We took a trip along to the Wellesbourne Airfield Market on the Easter Bank Holiday Monday.
http://www.wellesbournemarket.co.uk/
It was a dreary day, wet and windy and we probably did not see the market at its best.  We had almost decided it was not for us when we stopped to chat to a couple of traders who ran a little gift shop in the Cotswolds and had decided to give the market a go.  They felt it was well worth the money and gave us some helpful advice about how to go about it.
So, we got home and it was all steam ahead to get set-up for this and the Chilli Festivals that are happening all over the UK from May to September.  Mike has put together a list of events that we want to attend and is gradually registering us for them all.  The first will be the Eastnor Castle Chilli Festival on the 6th and 7th of May.
http://www.eastnorcastle.com/special_event.aspx?id=246
It's fair to say we are excited about this.  Me especially much to Mike's irritation.
So what have we done to get ready for this?  Well firstly we have seriously increased our stock levels in anticipation.  A risky strategy as so far we have only sold a few bits and pieces to friends and family on the web-site.  Fingers crossed it will pay-off.
We have also purchased a Heavy Duty Gazebo and two Tables, some new Business Cards, a Banner and some 10% off Promotional Flyers (from our local Printers who are brilliant!),
http://www.paperandprint.co.uk/
a Cash Box, some biodegradable bags, price labels, a receipt book, a cash book and a big calculator.  Oh, and we have joined the Market Traders Federation to take advantage of their public liability insurance.  Ready to go!!!!
http://www.nmtf.co.uk/
We have also been gradually expanding the product range as funds permit but they are running low until we make some serious sales.  I managed to source and purchase some snazzy Chilli USB Sticks from a guy in China - that was good fun!  Let's hope they are as good as they look when they arrive.
We have realised that to increase our turnover quickly we also need to increase the average price of our products as well as maximising profits.  The main way we are going to tackle this is through the development of chilli lover Gift Boxes which will essentially be collections of our products in Large, Medium and Small boxes with varieties for Him and Her and in Mild Medium and Hot.  That is our next project after we are ready for the festivals.
We have also, changed from postage being included in our prices to getting the customer to select a postal option of their choice and pay for it on top.  This was largely due to the fact that including the postage in our prices made them appear high and the increase in the Royal Mail prices further exacerbated this issue - that was a bit of a slog sorting that one out but all done now.  Phew...
So here's hoping we have a successful summer...................................We need Capsaicinoia to start making money, the house to sell and my shoulder surgery to happen soon and to go smoothly.

Back home at last.

March has been a truly crazy month!  We got home on the 1st of April and yes, we have found the Guest House we want to buy.  Hoorah!
Funnily enough the place we went to Scotland to see in the first place, Polcraig in Lochinvar, turned out to be the best one by a long way.  It ticked all our boxes;

• beautiful location, remote and rugged but with enough tourists and other visitors in terms of fishing, hiking and shooting to give a good occupancy rate over the year
• immaculate condition with 6 en suite letting rooms
• good price
• thriving business 
• good owner accommodation

Essentially, we could walk in tomorrow and run it as it is with no problem and no need to change anything unless we really needed to or wanted to put our own stamp on the place in terms of decor etc.
We just need to sell the house now!  We'll probably need a little commercial mortgage just to top it up but fingers crossed that will work out OK?!?

Our last post was after the first week of the trip when we were really feeling very despondent, the weather was truly awful as were the businesses we visited.  The towns we stayed in Fort William and Oban were also a little disappointing as we could not see ourselves living there.  We'd almost decided Scotland and the whole B&B thing was not for us after all.

Things really began to change the day we left Oban to spend the weekend with my friend Jane in Inveraray.  She is the Castle Manager and works for the Duke and Duchess of Argyll.
http://www.inveraray-castle.com/
We decided to forget the search for the B&B and just have a nice weekend.  Mike had asked his Mum (she died many years ago but he believes she is always looking after him) to make the sun shine for us as a sign that we were doing the right thing and that Saturday was the start of a week long heatwave that saw the hottest temperatures in Scotland since 1957, coincidentally the year that Mike was born.  We had a fantastic weekend in Inveraray great location, great pubs and restaurants and lovely people.  We even saw a couple of businesses with real potential simply by chance!  However, again they all had a few points that were just not quite right.  Nevertheless, things were looking up and we began to to get our enthusiasm and positivity back.

After our rejuvenating weekend we headed back over to Edinburgh and, after a night in the Gordon Arms, picked up Mum and Dad to head north to Lochinver.


We broke the 5 hour journey in a place called Tomatin just north of Aviemore and Kingussie where we viewed another Guest House which was the most promising so far.  It would have been perfect but for the location and the layout of some of the rooms and bathrooms.  Things were still looking up.


At Tomatin we stayed at the Glenan Lodge Bed Breakfast http://www.glenanlodge.co.uk/ and visited the Distillary - much to the delight of Dad and Mike who both came a way with a bottle of 18 year old malt!  http://www.tomatin.com/

We then headed up to Lochinver and had a wonderful couple of days there.  After all the disappointment to was a delight to walk into Polcraig which is everything we are looking for and it felt good from the moment we arrived until the moment we left.  Cathel is a darling and we really enjoyed his company.  Mum and Dad had a great time too.  Mums family came from this remote part of Scotland and we took them for a drive to see the house her mother grew up in.  She'd love it if we bought Polcraig and Cathel has pretty much said the same.  Fingers crossed!!!!!  One of the highlights of this part of the trip was a visit to the Falls of Shin - Harrods comes to the Highlands and jumping salmon - thoroughly recommended!  http://www.fallsofshin.co.uk/

We had made up our mind that we could find nothing better than Polcraig and cancelled all out other viewings.  What followed was a whirlwind tour of Scotland with Mum and Dad.

First stop was Bonar Bridge and while we were there we spend a day having lunch with some old friends of Mike's who live near Beauly.  We also spent a day driving up to John O'Groats just because we could.  We spent a night in Forres while Mum and Dad visited some friends.  Their friend Gordon has had Motor Neurone Disease since 2006 and meeting him was one of the most memorable moments of the trip - a truly inspiring man.  If he can be positive and live life to the full every single day then there is absolutely no excuse for the rest of us!

From Forres we headed to Aberdeen for a few days where we stayed at the home of some other friends of Mum and Dad who kindly let us use their house while they were in Australia.  This was a couple of days of memories and nostalgia for me visiting my old school and teenage haunts.  By now the weather was unbelievable and we spent a morning on the beautiful beach at Balmedie in short sleeves. We would have been in sandals of we had brought them with us!!!

We then headed back to Edinburgh and spent a couple of days with another old friend of Mike's in Newington.  While we were there we visited the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens and had a great night out at a Karine Polwart http://www.karinepolwart.com/ concert in the Greyfriars Kirk.  We walked the length of the Royal Mile, a favourite pastime of ours before heading down to Leith where we had dinner and spent the night with my cousin Bill and his partner Ken before picking Mum and Dad up again and heading for home via Harrogate.

The trip ended with a fantastic weekend in Harrogate at my sisters where we celebrated Mum and Dad's 55th Wedding Anniversary and I was reunited with Fiona who has returned from Oz for a 3 week holiday before going back for her second and possibly final year there.  The whole family were there, both my sisters and their children and both my two Fiona and Matthew.  Mike's children were also all expected but all except Michael had to cancel at the last minute which was a little disappointing.

What a mad month!  It is great to get home although it has been hard to settle after such a long time away and also to not have had the house to ourselves after a tiring trip.  At the same time it has been wonderful to spend time with Fi after a year apart and we have done all the Mother Daughter things together like bra shopping and catching up with East Enders.  I think Mike has found it a little irritating....

Two other things to mention before finishing this very long post!!!

We have bought a car!  We have gone for a Nissan X-Trail as we have been advised that we will need a 4 wheel drive for Lochinver and we are planning to do some markets and festivals this summer with Capsaicinoia and will need a large boot for transporting stock and equipment.

Finally, Capsaicinoia is officially open and stocked with a full range of products - just waiting for our first proper sale now..........

The Search for a Bed and Breakfast

Well, we have not dropped of the face of the earth but rather have been on a serious mission to find a Bed and Breakfast on the West Coast of Scotland.  We left home on the 12th of March and spent a lovely couple of days with some friends in Biggar before heading north.
The car has been playing up and threatened to put paid to our plans but after several hours in garages in Wishaw and Fort William we finally started our quest on the 14th.
It is now Saturday the 17th and have seen 8 properties so far with a final one today at 11am.  Generally it has been a disappointing experience.  The weather has been grim as have many of the properties.  The market is depressed as are the owners some of whom have been trying to sell for several years!  Honestly, we have not seen anything we have fallen in love with with one exception and that is a little out of our price range and would involve a mortgage which we were trying to avoid.
We have pretty much realised that we won't get what we want for our budget and then it becomes a toss-up between borrowing to upgrade an existing business that we can afford, or borrowing to buy a business that is ready to walk into and start trading.
The search continues..................

Naga Chilli Vodka!

We have a had a great week since the last post!  Capsaicinoia is coming together and we have done most of what we need to do before we leave it alone for a few weeks and then launch for real in April.
Although we were not expecting to make any sales in this trial period it would be nice to make just one!

Last Sunday evening we went to the Warwick Arts Centre to see Ruby Turner.  She was truly amazing and it was a great night.  Very talented, soulful and professional with an excellent backing band.  She delivered a 2 hour programme of soul, rock and gospel including a moving version of "Stay With Me Baby" as a tribute to Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston.  She was down to earth and really engaged with the audience who initially appeared pretty staid and middle aged but by the end the whole place was rocking!

http://www.rubyturner.com/

http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/

On Thursday we had tickets to see Rebecca Ferguson that we bought some time ago and we decided to make a day of it - just because we can!

We headed into town for lunch at Asha's.

Asha’s Executive Lunch
£12.95 per person
Price includes a beer, glass of wine, soft drink or water
Starters
Please choose from one of the following
Kebab Platter
(Chicken Malai Kebab, Lamb Seekh Kebab, King Prawn Tikka)
or
Vegetarian Kebab Platter
(Paneer Ka Soola, Aloo Tikka, Papdi Chat)
Main Course - Served as soon as Starters are finished
Please choose form one of the following
Chicken Tikka Masala
Lamb Roganjosh
Panjim Fish Curry
Kadhai Paneer
Accompanied by
Pulao Rice
Vegetable Raita
Papadoms
Selection of Breads
Tea / Coffee

Great food, great location, good service, good value for money - what more could you want?  Oh and the sun was shining!

http://www.ashasuk.co.uk/

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering round town looking for potential products for Capsaicinoia.  We found a few things including a great little cookbook by Dan May which we are definitely going to stock.

The highlight of the afternoon was a tasting session in Selfirdge's of the Master of Malt Naga Chilli Vodka.  OH MY GOD!  We tried a tiny taste initially on the end of a straw and after that a little sip.  It nearly blew our heads off!  The heat went on and on and on.......About 5 minutes afterwards we actually experienced physical effects like abdominal pain, sweating and lightheadedness.  Try it if you dare!!!!

http://www.masterofmalt.com/vodka/100000-scovilles-naga-chilli-vodka/

We went to have a cold beer to cool our mouths and recover and found for the first time the delightful Post Office Vaults pub.  Birmingham's newest free house selling the largest range of foreign bottled beers in the city as well as 8 perfectly kept real ales.  I had a Kriek and Mike a Freedom Stout.  Lovely!  Definitely worth a visit.

http://www.postofficevaults.co.uk/

We ended the day at the Rebecca Ferguson concert in the Symphony Hall.  She was supported by Jay James Picton who has just released his first single "Plat it by Heart" and was surprisingly good for a support act and got a good reaction from the audience.  Apparently, five years ago he had never sung or played a note and now Booker T Jones, Roger Daltrey and John Legend are all admirers of his unique soulful voice.

http://www.jayjamespicton.com/

Rebecca was brilliant.  She looked and sounded beautiful.  Her voice is smooth and soulful, her songs are emotional and sincere, she engages with the audience with an endearing humility, ever grateful to the people who helped get her where she is today.  On the downside she only performed for an hour and with retrospect still came across as a little shy and restrained at times.  I'm sure with more experience and audience reactions like the one she got in Birmingham on Thursday night she will grow in confidence and develop a stronger stage presence and a longer repertoire.  I'd definitely pay to see her again.

http://www.rebeccaofficial.com/gb/home

Watch Mike's Beard Grow.

Well the beard growing episode  has come to a sudden end.  We did make 4 weeks and this was indeed the minimum requirement but a sudden bit of news about the application for Barbadian Citizenship has necessitated and emergency shave.  Basically 3 passport photos were urgently required.  So feast your eyes on the final images of Mike with hair - probably a sight that will never be seen again!

Watch Mike's Beard Grow

3 weeks ago Mike made a rash promise to his grand-daughter that if she got 70% in her biology test he would not shave his face or head for a month.  She got 80% and the general consensus is that this means 6 weeks without shaving.  A couple of people have even said they'll make a donation to charity if he goes through with it.  Some friends of ours post a picture of their baby next to a large teddy bear on Face Book every week or so called "Watch Quinn Grow".  So, to "steal with pride" a Pfizer expression I have stolen with pride the idea and proudly present "Watch Mike's Beard Grow".

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Officially 1 month post-employment.

This weekend it is almost a month since I finished with Pfizer and to be honest it feels pretty good at the moment.  I'm not missing it all!  Far from it!  If someone rang up and offered me my old job back on a higher salary I would probably say "thanks but no thanks".   The last few bits of money from shares and bonus have been trickling in and the on-line saver is looking very healthy.

We have been keeping ourselves pretty busy since the last post, mostly getting Capsaicinoia up and running.  We have actually reached the point where we have opened the shop to family and friends so that they can check it out, try it out and even buy something!  The plan is to keep it open for a couple of weeks before we go up to Scotland, get feedback on what works and what doesn't and make the necessary tweaks and improvements before we launch officially to the Chilli Loving British public in April.

After our last post we went back to the Spring Fair at the NEC http://www.springfair.com/ and bought our first load of stock.  The orders have been coming in thick and fast and we have been furiously trying to get the web-site up and running and so far so good.  We still have lots to do.  My "to do" list fills a sheet of A4.  If you are reading this please check it out and let us know what you think?

http://capsaicinoia.com/

We seem to have found a great accountant http://angelaccounting.co.uk/ who is on our wave length and  is very down to earth and jargon free as well as offering what appears to be a good value service with no hidden fees and expenses.



Not much has changed with regard to the Bed and Breakfast side of things.  The Scotland trip is still on track and we have several businesses lined up to look at.  We'll keep you posted as and when we see them.  We are now heading up to visit with a friend of Mike's from Pfizer for a couple of days.  We head up to the West Coast where we will spend a few days viewing businesses and getting a feel for the area.  We are planing to spend a weekend visiting my friend Jane who manages Inveraray Castle on Loch Fyne. http://www.inveraray-castle.com/ and then head over to get Mum and Dad.  From there back up to the West Coast for more B&B viewings including one belonging to my Mum's cousin.  Couple of days in Lochiniver, couple in Bonar Bridge, one night in Forres and a couple in Aberdeen before heading back down to Edinburgh.  We then have another few days visiting various friends and family before taking Mum and Dad down to my sisters in Harrogate where we are having a bit of a family get-together to celebrate their 55th Wedding Anniversary.

The even bigger deal for me will be that we will be meeting up with Fi in Harrogate.  Our daughter who has been "down under" in Oz for a year and is coming back for a 3 week holiday!  Can't wait to see her.  She arrives back when we are still in Scotland but is going to make her way up to Harrogate to meet up with us there.

So what else is new?

I suppose we should mention that immigration to Barbados is still on the cards and has moved up the ratings recently due to the property prices in the main.  Our attorney out there Dennis Chandler is still beavering away trying to get Citizenship by Descent for Mike and to be honest if that comes through before May we are pretty sure that we would top all our other plans and just go there!  We have seen some properties there that we could buy for cash and still have money left over that include apartments we could rent out for holiday accommodation!  It's rapidly becoming a bit of a "no brainer"but would not work without the Citizenship for us and that is not a straightforward as you might think - another story for another time...

Oh!  We had a great night out for Valentines.  We went to a burlesque night at the Hare and Hounds in Kingsheath.  http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/A great little venue with some fantastic burlesque performances!

Danny de Milo http://www.dannydemilo.com/
Felicia Noir http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000102109047
and
Twinkel Pink http://www.facebook.com/pages/Twinkel-Pink/149924488372785?ref=ts&sk=wall

All brilliant but my personal favourite was Felicia Noir, gorgeous, sexy, funny and a natural red-head like my own lovely daughter.

I have had to stop my own burlesque classes for the moment.  The big focus was on the next show and I probably won't be around for it.  Besides, there seems to be so much going on at the moment that there is not enough room in my head for burlesque and especially not getting ready for a show which I found took up a lot of time and energy before.  We have put our ballroom on hold for the same reasons.    We can pick it all up again when things begin to settle down and take shape.

My shoulder has also taken a turn for the worse making everything single thing I do very difficult and painful.  It looks like I'm just going to have to get the surgery over with if I am going to be able to live my life to the full in the future and be able to do all the physical tasks involved in running a B&B.  I have an appointment with the GP next week to get the ball rolling with that one.

Welcome to Capsaicinoia

The other little venture we have been working on alongside the quest for a B&B has been Capsaicinoia!  Capsaicinoia is going to be an on-line gift shop for chilli lovers, chill addicts or chillholics or people who have one in their life.  You might say a chilli emporium, a rich, exotic and enticing collection of chilli related products including, dried chillies and powders, chill sauces, pickles, jams chutneys and relishes. jewellery including earrings, necklaces, charms and cuff links, books, chocolate, drinks like beers and vodka, art work and ceramics, kitchen ware such as bowls, chopping boards, notice boards, aprons and so on....The list is potentially endless but all products must be high quality with a direct link to chillies.

Capsaicinoia is a combination of the words Capsaicin (the active ingredient in a chilli) and paranoia (a lay term often associated with craziness or insanity).  Hence Capsaicinoia - crazy for chilli!

So far we have bought the domain name, capsaicinoia.com and also from Namesco http://www.names.co.uk/ we have purchased their excellent value ecommerce package.  Honestly, for me as complete novice to web-design and commerce it seems to be very easy to use and great value for money.  For just over £8 per month or a total of just over £100 for the year you get a ready made but customisable on-line shop and everything else you need to run your business including customer management, product management and marketing tools.  It has taken me only a few days to get half way towards launching my web-site and opening m shop.

So the web-site is capsaicinoia.com and the business email is jackie@capsaicinoia.com and we hope to start trading by the end of April at the latest.

Product wise it has been really exciting!  We realised that the Spring Fair at the NEC might be worth a visit so wen popped along on Sunday and have identified some great products that we could use the get the business up and running with a bang!  http://www.springfair.com/ We came home and worked out a list of products that met the criteria for inclusion in our shop and we could purchase within our start-up budget and we are going back to place some of our first orders!  Yippee!!

The plan is to get the whole thing ready and fit for purpose before we launch the web-site and start trading.  We aim to start small and perfect the process before thinking about expanding the product range and implementing the full marketing plan.  We have lots of research and bits and pieces to sort out before we are ready to go including;

• choosing and engaging the right accountant
• product and possibly public liability insurance
• notifying HMRC and understanding tax and VAT implications
• registration as a sole trader or not
• delivery and postage processes and options
• packaging processes and options 
• finish the business plan
• finalise the logo and business stationary (with help from Matthew Bottomley)
• competitor research
• privacy and data protection
• consider joining relevant trade organisations

Initial ideas for marketing include;

• attending all the UK Chill Festivals this summer and handing out fliers and business cards
• getting ourselves on the various UK chilli information web-sites such as the chile foundry http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/ and the ring of fire http://www.ringoffire.net/
• getting the whole Search Engine Optimisation thing right!

So watch this space.  I know we are really excited about this little venture and even if is never turns out to be a big money earner we will have learnt a lot of new transferable skills and and had a lot of fun along the way.

I have to give credit to my sister Vicky and son Matt.  I had a dream about this shop a few years ago and they both said to try it on-line before investing in a physical shop and all that that involves.  I was reluctant partly because I did not think I had the necessary IT skills but also as a concept I was unsure about it.  Matt at just 25 is always great source of creative and imaginative advice and Vicky has proved the potential of an on-line shop having run her own wonderful and successful little business for a couple of years now called Good Gracious - surprise your home.  Check it out and surprise yourself!
http://www.goodgracious.co.uk/

Bed and Breakfast Update

We are really starting to make progress now with the quest for a Bed and Breakfast.  Since our last post we have actually viewed a couple of businesses for sale in the Midlands almost as a sort of practice run for the real thing when we get up to Scotland.  Stepping inside a going concern was a big step towards making it feel like it is really going to happen and it also convinced us that we could definitely do it!

The first place we looked at was called Black Firs in Marston Green.  http://www.b-firs.co.uk/
It was a fantastic business with a lovely host and we almost fell in love with the first place we saw.  Thankfully, we were soon able to view it rationally in the context of our business plan and remind ourselves that it did not really fit with our criteria on a number of points namely location, budget and customer types.  This was essentially a Bed and Breakfast for business customers using the NEC or doing business in the Birmingham area.  However, it was very encouraging and actually quite exciting to imagine ourselves running a place like it on a day to day basis.  What was even more encouraging was the feedback from the owner who said she could see us running her business or one like it,

We went on to see another business further in to Birmingham and, while it was not the right place for us on a number of levels, again the owners were friendly and helpful and we could see that we had the right attitude and skill mix as a couple to easily run a similar business.   I hope we are not deceiving ourselves as we get so many negative comments from people when we tell them what we are planning to do in terms of what hard work it is with early mornings, physical hard work and being available 24/7.  We think that we have thought though all of these points but we are not afraid of hard work and we don't mind early mornings.  We are sociable and we enjoy entertaining.  We want and possibly need to work for ourselves for the next 10 years as we are certain that we don't want to continue to work as hard as we have been doing for someone else only to be cast aside without a second thought when we are no longer required!

The diary of viewings for the Scotland trip is pretty much full now so the only additional preparation to do for this is to familiarise ourselves with the details of the different business and their own web-sites and Trip Adviser ratings and comments.  We have also developed a template for the financial side of each business that we will view as a way of comparing the expected P&L for each one and looking at that in the context of our own expectations for income and expenditure.

Our house is well and truly for sale now with all the formalities attended to and our first viewing booked for tomorrow!

I think that's about it as far as the B&B is concerned.  The Business Plan is almost written - just a matter of pulling it all together now.

We had another meeting with our DBM consultant and as a result of that conversation, our detailed look at the expected revenues and the current economic environment we have reconsidered our decisions to avoid taking on any loans or finance and may consider as a option for the right business.

How is Monkey doing?

So if you want a quick look at what Monkey is up to now that his big USA trip is off check out the details of our house on www.melvyndanes.co.uk  (17 Gorcott Lane B90 1SY) and see if you can spot him in the slide show...........yes that's him lying on our bed waiting for his next big adventure to start...........bless......

Todays the day....

Today is my very last day with Pfizer.  It's been a long time coming in many ways but in others the 11 years have flown by as have the 2 months since we found out what our fate was to be.  We have been racing round and round through the change curve like a roller coaster lurching from positivity and excitement ones day to despondency, anxiety and despair on others.  We have been angry and sad, confused and focused and often all at the same time.  It has been reassuring to know that this is all perfectly normal and so are episodes of fantasy and denial.

It is strange trying to discipline ourselves to have some sort of routine - it almost feels as though every day is a Saturday or Sunday which is good in some ways but then when the weekend comes along it just feels like any other day and has lost its sparkle a little....

We have been making cost-saving almost a new hobby and it has been sort fun to see how much money we can NOT spend.  We went into Birmingham Market and saved a fortune on fruit and veg and meat and fish.  Sadly, we then rewarded ourselves in Starbucks with coffee and muffins setting us back almost as much as we saved...............!!!!!

I have had a couple of lovely lunches to say goodbye to my lovely Pfizer colleagues.  It is the people that I will miss most of all.......the East Midlands Team bought me a beautiful necklace (which I was not expecting given that so many people are leaving all at the same time) and lots of people have called or texted or left messages on Face Book to say goodbye.

Yesterday the car, phone and computer all went back.  The upside is that I am working only on the Mac now instead of flitting between the two and that I have "had to" buy myself a new iPhone.  That has made me very happy, at least for a moment or two!  My last payday has come and gone but the upside of that is that we paid of all the little bits and pieces and are totally debt free except for the mortgage.

As far as the B&B plans are going, we are slowly but surely making progress.  The house is now officially on the Market with Melvyn Danes.  www.melvyndanes.co.uk  We have a number of businesses lined up for viewings in March and some local ones this week to get a feel for the process and what we will get for our money....The Scotland trip is cloming together nicely.  We have looked really carefully at other locations and always return to Scotland on grounds of value for money, location and business potential.

Now that the USA Trip is off, it's hard to find interesting things to write about but I will keep going with this as things could get interesting again very soon.....

The biggest thing I can do now is share this blog with my Face Book friends which has been something I been reluctant to do until this stage in the process.

We'll keep you posted........and as ever any feedback, ideas, criticisms or comments are always welcome......

Reality Bites

It's been a week or so since our last post and almost 2 weeks since the visa disaster.  The more we think about it the surer we are that we might have had a lucky escape and that something, or even someone, might even be guiding us in the right direction!  I never thought I'd hear myself say something like that and I lurch with discomfort when others describe how they are guided by "The Universe" but it does feel bit like that at the moment.  Mike has always believed, some he lost his mother in his 20's that she has been looking out for him like a sort of guardian angel.  Who knows......
The end of last week for me was pretty dark as reality set in.  Last year we had Christmas and the trip to New York to distract us and then the USA trip to plan.  Suddenly, the enormity and uncertainty of the change we are about to go through, and are currently going through really hit home.  I felt overwhelmed but the number of small things I needed to do to disengage from Pfizer and ended up spending two days in my dressing gown in the the office sorting out my personal stuff from my work stuff and transferring my life from my work computer to my personal one and my work email address to my home one.  I had a long list of accounts from FaceBook and Love Film to my Bank Account and Credit Cards where I needed to change my email address - essentially I was feeling a bit out of control and needed to take it back.
So what have we been doing?  Plan B has been slowly but surely crystallising into a pretty solid plan.  We have decided to go down Route 2 and go straight for the Bed and Breakfast idea in term of buying a going concern.  We decided the Chalet idea was just another avoidance or delaying tactic and that you don't really need to do courses to learn how to mange a budget and profit and loss account or to cook breakfasts and clean rooms.  Work experience still might be useful though.  Mike is still pursuing his Barbadian Citizenship although we are increasingly thinking that the time is not right for a move to Barbados just yet and that leaving Pfizer and starting our own business might be enough to deal with at one time, and a move to the other side of the Atlantic might just be a step too far even for us!
So the new plan is to get the house on the market and start researching and looking for a suitable going concern to purchase.  Scotland is emerging as the front-runner in terms of location at the moment.  We can't do anything until May/June when Mike gets his money so we have a few months to get the various wheels in motion.
In the background I've been selling stuff on EBay as a start on clearing the house ready to sell and I've been writing a little bit of my novel everyday using the Snow Flake Method by Randy Ingermanson which is really working for me at the moment and the story and characters feel as though they are coming together.  http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php
I have bought the domain name for my on-line retail business and started to try and set-up a web page but am beginning to think I'm going to need some help with this one.  I am a great believer ever in the concept that anyone can do anything if they take the time and put their mind to it but I am struggling with this one.
Mike has been given four two hour sessions with his group of teenage boys and has been working on what he is going to do with them.  Today he has gone of for his CRB check in relation to that.

On Monday we drove down to Pfizer Head Office at Walton Oaks in Surrey to meet with an independent financial adviser from Origen http://www.origenfs.co.uk/index.html as part of our redundancy package.    We had the option of doing it over the phone but because both of us are affected and it felt like a tough conversation to have on the phone, opted for the face to face meeting.  When we were driving down to Surrey and around the M25 we did ask ourselves whether it was going to be worth but we can honestly say it was.  Nice young bloke with some really good ideas that we would never have thought of!  For example,  he suggested that if our goal is to raise enough cash to buy the best Bed and Breakfast we can then it might not be the best idea for Mike to pay his redundancy into his pension and that even if he is taxed on 40% we will still get more tax now if he doesn't do it.  He also persuaded Mike that it is cost-effective to pay and accountant to do your tax returns as they will almost always save you more than you pay them.  It was weird and uncomfortable being in Walton Oaks.  Things are carrying on as if nothing has happened and for everyone else I suppose it hasn't.  People were going about their business apparently oblivious to the turmoil we are going through.  There was also an irrational sense that we were disgraced in some way and the few people we did meet seemed awkward and embarrassed when they realised why we were there.  That said, it was good in some ways to have a final visit there and to say our own goodbyes in our own way........

Another useful meeting we had this week was with a DBM Consultant, again as part of the redundancy package.  DBM are an outplacement support organisation who have been doing well recently.  It must be odd to measure your success through the misfortune of others.  http://www.dbm.com/   Again, a very useful meeting which was worth the drive into Birmingham City Centre on a cold and frosty day.  We took some time to explore the market, a thing we have never really done before despite having toured markets all over the world from France to Vietnam.  We resolved as part of our new cost-saving strategy to buy as much of our fruit, veg meat and fish as we can form there over the coming weeks.
The main things to come out of the DBM meeting for me were the realisation that we are going through a massive change curve and that it is normal to have extremes of emotion on an almost daily basis, and the need to generate a robust business plan for the Bed and Breakfast sooner rather than later.  That will be our number one priority for next week.

We have also been to visit a small quest house and lovely little event venue 5 minutes from home called The Limes http://www.limescountrylodge.co.uk/  We are going to explore the possibility of doing some work experience there although it is not quite the same as our own concept.  The staff are friendly and helpful and the owner has built it up from scratch into something quite special.  The first step will be to spend a day shadowing the House Keeper in terms of the process and procedures associated with cleaning the bedrooms - how difficult and complicated can that? be I hear you say......well we'll let you know.......

We have also been planning our trip to Scotland in March.  We are going to stay for a couple of days at a Bed and Breakfast that we know about through the family and that us currently on the market and do some wider research on the West Coast of Scotland as a potential location, including identifying and viewing a few other businesses.  It is also an opportunity to visit some of the places I lived in as a child with Mike, but also to take Mum and Dad back to them too, on a sort of nostalgic Scottish road trip.  We also have a few friends in Scotland that we are going to try and catch up with while we have the time.

Life has been getting back to normal in other ways.  I have resumed my Burlesque classes this year at the MAC in Edgbaston  http://www.macarts.co.uk/, and have graduated to the intermediate group where we have begun already to rehearse for a show in April. OMG! What was I thinking!  Seriously it is great fun.  Lovely women and Dixy Derriere is a great teacher.  http://www.bijouxburlesque.co.uk/home

Mike and I have also resumed our ballroom classes at the Mosley Dance Centre.  Again, great fun and great teachers. ....http://www.moseleydancecentre.com/.... we are currently working on the waltz and the quick step for the second time having failed miserably on our first attempt to complete the Friday might beginners class.

And finally, in the context of saving money I have decided to move from our local expensive designer opticians to SpecSavers for my glasses and contact lenses so spent several hours yesterday having eye-tests and choosing some new glasses and making an appointment for new contact lenses - I reckon I am going to save us a fortune!!!!!!
http://www.specsavers.co.uk/?gclid=CLLwh4T-260CFUIMfAodvxSLnw&sissr=1

Redundancy Update

For those of you that are following the progress and process of the Redundancy a quick update on what has happened this week.  It very busy being made redundant.
On Monday we had the meeting with the Solicitor and finalised the  legal side of everything.....can't say anymore than that on that one for legal reasons!
On Tuesday we went to the Apple Shop in Solihull and took part in an excellent workshop on "how to make the most of your Mac. http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/touchwoodcentre/
They are so helpful in there and it was great to find out a bit more about how to use our Mac Book to all the things we currently do on our PC.  Actually when you get your head round it I think it is more intuitive and generally easier to use than Microsoft.  We also got some great advice about what sort of phone to buy and whether to get a contract or pay as you go etc....It seems that of you have cash it is better to buy a phone outright and get a sim only contract especially of you are thinking of travelling between countries. 
We also spent a lot of time working out our finances in detail so that we know what will be going out, what will be coming in and what will be in the pot as the year progresses...
I have had to get a letter from the company car leasing agency about my driving history for insurance purposes when we get around to buying a car.
I have cancelled our Home Alarm System Servicing contract as it only increases our insurance payment by about £1 a month compared to almost £30 a month for the ADT Contract.
I have ordered some books on setting up a web-based business.
We are going to a workshop on Setting up Your Own Business in February.
We are having a joint session with a financial adviser on Monday and have had to pull together all sorts of paperwork to take to that.
The list of tasks seems to be endless but I have 3 weeks complete them.......its busy doing nothing!

Plan B

It's been almost a week since the end of Plan A and now that we have got our heads together again and "licked our wounds" we are ready to move on to what has now become Plan B in the Redundancy Road Trip.  We are going to continue the blog and still call it Redundancy Road Trippers as, in a way, it is our Road Trip through and beyond a double-redundancy situtation.
After a weekend spent relaxing with the kids, we have spent much of the week working up Plan B.  We started by working throuhg some articles in a recent edition of the Oprah magazine.  Those of you who know Mike will know that she is his guru and that he is more likley to do something if Oprah endorses it!  There are things like treating Athlete's Foot with cider vinegar that I have been telling him for years but he took no notice until he read it in Oprah and thus waited several years before he successfully got rid of a troublesome case of the fungal infection.  http://www.oprah.com/omagazine.html  
The November 2011 issue Volume 12, Number 11 contained a series of articles under the banner "Find Your True Calling - A guide to discovering who you're mean't to be.  Step 1 was how to find your Passions, Step 2 Taking Stock of Your Strengths, Step 3 Tapping into your Motivation and Step 4 GO!
The whole process took us back again to an idea we had a few years ago when we considered getting out of the corporate world, that encapsulates all of our joint passions and interests - running a Bed and Breakfast or small Guest House. 
So this is where we are headed for the moment anyway!
This could go in one of two directions at the moment;
Route 1 involves trying to get a job running a chalet in a ski resort next season from November to March, as a means of dipping a toe in the water before making a full commitment.  We would spent the time between May and November getting some relevant work experience either paid or voluntary and possibly undertaking some courses such as catering, book-keeping and property maintainence. 
Route 2, which is more risky and scary, would be jumping in with both feet and buying a going concern as soom as we get our money and can sell our house.  There are a few interesting opportunities that have presented themselves to us in this repsect but we'll keep you updated on that one when we know more........
In the background we have a few ideas to supplement our income and keep ourselves stimulated and busy;
Mike has only today been given the opportunity to work, on a voluntary basis, with some underperforming teenagers at his old school as a mentor come motivater.
I am planning to do a bit of buying and selling on EBay and possibly create an on-line business but again more of that in the future...........nudge nudge wink wink....
I have even considered trying to write a novel - they say everyone has one in them and there seems like no better time to have a dabble in that direction.....
SO, USA we are over you and mooooving on!  Your loss US Economy and Tourist Industry......




                        

US Embassy Visa Hell!

Well, it looks as though the dream is over before it even started and we failed to get through the first hurdle and are now officially "undesirables".

Its been a crazy week, after another day with the Robinson's in Brooklyn on the 2nd of January we flew home at stupid o'clock and arrived back in the UK on Tuesday the 3rd around 8pm.

Up the next day and off to our final Individual Consultation meetings where we were officially served with our Notice of Redundancy and then off to the Solicitor's to drop in copies of the Severance Contracts before our meeting on Monday.

We spent Thursday catching up with work and stuff and getting ready for the trip down to get our Visa's on Friday.  As advised in the guidance we put together a pack containing evidence of our ties to the UK in terms of family and property, evidence that we were on a trip in terms of the the details of the camper van buy-back and a provisional route map, and details of our finances to demonstrate that we have sufficient funds to cover the trip.  We printed out all the relevant documentation and put it all together with our passports and photos.

We decided against the train as the tickets were £160 each due to it being peak hour, so we got up at 5am and drove to West Ruislip where we caught the London Underground to Marble Arch and walked down to the US Embassy on Grosvenor Square.  Even at 08.30 the queue was snaking in front of the building and it was freezing.  Women were feeding babies as they stood in the queue and people were fumbling with papers and passports with numb fingers.  Armed police officers in the background.

First stage was to show your invitations and DS-160 which allowed you to enter the first queue.  When called over to the next queue we were retired to show our invitations and passports before entering the second queue.  People were entering the security building but many were leaving and hurrying down the street only to return and rejoin the second queue again flustered and sweaty.  We finally got into the security building in groups of 3 of 4 only to be told that we could not take our car key into the building as they qualified as an electronic item.

Suddenly, it became clear why people had been scurrying around with red faces.  We were given the option of paying to store the key in a little pharmacy a few streets away but Mike took it on himself to stash it in the leaves in the park in the centre of the square.  Back into the second queue again, back into the security building, through the scanner, outside again, round the corner and into the main building itself to join another queue.  This time we had to present all of our bar coded documentation again and we given a number.  N112, it will stay with me for a long time!

So we then entered the immigration hall and sat down in a section on the left hand side where we waited to be called to windows 1-12. After 15 to 20 minutes we were called to window 4 where we went through stage 1 which involved submitting all our papers again and having our finger prints checked at an electronic scanner.  We then sat down an waited to be called to the next stage when we would be called to windows 12-25.

It was at this stage that I began to think about the whole thing. Who do the USA they they think they are that gives them to right to treat people like this?  Between us we have travelled to many countries in the world and never have to go through a process like this to get a Visa.  A little voice in the back of my head kept asking me if I really wanted to spend a year in the country that treated foreigners in this way....I began to add up the time and money we had spent on the process so far.......As we sat there with the calls for numbers to windows rolling out in an almost hypnotic way, it became clear that we were different, or special, in some way.  Numbers in the high 100's and early 200's were being called through to the second stage but we were still sat there.  Now and again low numbers were called N09 to Window 17, 111 to window 23.  All of a sudden after about and hour we were called, N112 to Window 17.  It was time.

We were expecting an interview, how silly were we.  A young American girl sat at a desk behind a class window.  We had to stand at a counter and had to bend forward to hear what she was saying.  she had our papers on her desk with Mike's police certificate on the top which she kept tapping with her hand throughout the "interview".  She seemed taken aback when we said we wanted to visit for a year and said that only 6 months in one year would be possible no matter how we did it including driving in and out of Canada.  She asked why we were planning such a long trip and we explained but it very quickly turned sour after that.  She refused to look at any of the documentation we have brought with us and asked us very few questions other than about our children, who because they are grown up and employed could not be regarded as ties to the UK.  She eventually said that because she could not see that we had any ties to the UK she could not be sure that we planned to return and could not grant us a Visa even for 6 months.  She made reference at one point to lack of funds but when I asked to explain what she meant, because we had clear evidence with us of sufficient funds to sustain us for several years, she became flustered and said it was not her job to advise us about what might be regarded as ties to the UK.  Apparently a house, family and money in the bank is not enough.   She seemed to imply that you need a job to return to as well but ironically it is because we don't have jobs to return to that we are even able to consider a trip like this.  She did not give Mike a chance to talk about his retirement.  It became a blur after that as I realised what she was saying and could not believe it, shock and surprise quickly turned into anger and disgust and an immediate sense that I do not even want anymore to visit a country that was so arrogant about the way it treated decent people.

She passed us our documentation and a letter saying that we were ineligible for a non-immigrant Visa to the USA.  We could not appeal but we could re-apply which would mean going through the entire process from start to finish again including paying another $140 each for the privilege.  Do you know what?  Forget it!  Interestingly, the letter she gave us was already signed and dated before we got to the window and she just handed it to us as we left.  She had made up her mind before we even go there!  What a farce!  What a rip-off!  What a complete disgrace!  It all seemed so unreasonable that I began to question her real motives in my mind and its probably best not to go down that road..................

Clearly, it was a difficult and emotional experience and one we would never willingly repeat.  It is not every day you are humiliated and insulted by an arrogant young American who took 5 minutes to destroy our dream...............................

Yesterday was essentially the climax of the trip for Mike when we went to his father's house (now Sherry's) for a Robinson Family get together.  We were picked up by his cousin Bently who drove us over in his much adored white BMW!  Bently wound up Peggy and Sherry by calling ahead to say that he had not found us and had decided to come without us.  Not sure that they found it all that funny!
When we arrived Mike met his sister Peggy for the very first time and brother Owen for the second.  We were joined by his niece and nephew Toni and James and James son Christian who was highly excited about his 12th Birthday the following day!  This was only the start and as the day progressed more and more members of the enormous Robinson clan arrived until it was quite overwhelming.  His cousin Trevor gave us a copy of the family tree and it says it all when I say that there are 9 pages of it!  It appears that his Grandfather and Grandmother between them had around 10 children which has created multiple complex branches of the family.  Another twist in the tale is that Peggy's close friend is also Mike's cousin on his mothers side!  It was a great party full of noise and laughter, dancing and eating, family photos and a great sense of love and warmth towards Mike from his new found family.  At times it was overwhelming and emotional given that for most of his life it was just Mike and his Mum.............Trevor made a toast to the family, those who were there and those who were not and Cecil made a little speech about passing on the mantle of responsibility to Trevor and the next generation including Mike and Mike himself got the opportunity to thank them all for making us both feel so welcome.

Monkey Business in NYC

Monkey gets arrested in New York City!

1st of January 2012

Its Sunday the 1st of January 2012 and aptly we are in the USA as this is where we will be for most of this year all being well!
We spent yesterday doing a bit of tourist type stuff in New York.  Breakfast of Bagel and Lox in a diner then we spent the rest of the morning in the International Photography Centre http://www.icp.org/
There were 3 very contrasting exhibitions on;
Signs of Life by Peter Sekaer, photographs of different people getting by in the 1930's Great Depression in the USA.
Harpers Bazaar: A Decade of Style, a selection of photos from the magazine including unusual and striking portraits of celebrities like Julianne Moore and Lady Gaga.
Remembering 9/11, a sombre and moving collection of visual images of the aftermath of September 11th.

In the afternoon we took the subway down to the World Trade Centre and then gradually strolled back uptown via Battery Park, Financial District, Chinatown, SoHo and Greenwich just taking in the atmosphere.  We stopped at an Irish bar for a cold beer and later at a cafe called Landmark which was immediately between    China Town and Little Italy and appropriately served a mixture of american, oriental and italian food!

Back to our room before heading out for New Year's Eve.  We spent the evening in the Mexican we went to the other day but it was a little disappointing and rather lacking in atmosphere.  They handed out hats and rattles but the party never really got going.

Back to bed about 1am...........

Rather hungover today but made it out for breakfast before coming back to get ready for the New Years Day party at the Robinsons on Van Buren Street, Brooklyn.